WorldWide Drilling Resource

A Helium Shortage? Not Anymore Adapted from Information Provided by the University of Oxford Helium doesn’t just make your voice squeaky, it is also critical to many things we take for granted, like MRI scanners in medicine, welding, industrial leak detection, and nuclear energy. Recent years have seen worries about the over-exploitation of this extremely limited, finite natural resource, with fears the supply could not be guaranteed into the medium- to long-term future. In 2015, the British Medical Association expressed concern the helium supplies may need to be regulated. Now, a new approach to gas exploration has discovered a huge helium gas field, which could address the increasingly critical shortage of this vital yet rare element. Known reserves have been quickly dwindling. Until now, helium has never been found intentionally; it was found acciden- tally in small quantities during oil and gas drilling. A research group from Oxford and Durham universities, working with Helium One, a Norway-headquartered helium ex- ploration company, developed a state-of-the-art exploration approach. The first use of the method resulted in the discovery of a world-class helium gas field in Tanzania. Research revealed volcanic activity provides the intense heat necessary to release the gas from ancient, helium-bearing rocks. Within the Tanzanian East African Rift Valley, volcanoes have released helium from ancient deep rocks and trapped the helium in shallower gas fields. Diveena Danabalan, of Durham University’s Department of Earth Sciences said, “We show that volcanoes in the Rift play an important role in the formation of viable helium reserves. Volcanic activity likely provides the heat necessary to release the helium accumulated in ancient crustal rocks. However, if gas traps are located too close to a given volcano, they run the risk of helium being heavily diluted by volcanic gases such as carbon dioxide, just as we see in thermal springs from the region. We are now working to identify the ‘goldilocks-zone’ between the ancient crust and the modern volcanoes where the balance between helium release and volcanic dilution is ‘just right’.” Professor Chris Ballentine, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford noted, “We sampled helium gas (and nitrogen) just bubbling out of the ground in the Tanzanian East African Rift valley. By combining our understanding of helium geo- Tanzanian East African Rift Valley. Image courtesy of St. Hugh’s College University of Oxford. A Helium Shortage cont’d on page 26. 19 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® APRIL 2017